Samsung's Focus on Hardware Instead of Software Has Lead to It's Decline in Phone Sales

Samsung's performance in 2015 hasn't been much to write home about. Though the latest flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S6, did bring an innovative and bold design, its sales were not exactly a success or a failure. 

A report with Tech Times said that Samsung's decline in sales could be due to the fact that the South Korean tech giant has emphasized more on hardware over developing the proprietary software.

This is most noticeable in the Samsung Galaxy S6, where the flagship lacked a removable battery and an expandable memory card slot. Many of those who have been Samsung users for so long complained about the change, saying that Samsung has become very much like Apple, and that an expandable memory card slot and a removable battery were some of the features that separated Samsung from Apple. 

The website also says that Samsung's corporate culture is primarily focused on short-term sales of handsets, and focuses less on the development of unique software platforms that would keep a loyal fanbase in the long-run. 

The report with the website also tells of a lack of trust within Samsung's corporate hierarchy in terms of executives who want to implement software improvements. The company's focus on selling hardware devices remains prevalent. 

A report with Reuters tells of a former Samsung employee who said that a software application that he and his team were working on was pitted against another team within the company, with none of them being informed. Employees claimed Samsung considers software to be more of a marketing tool, as opposed to an integral part of the smartphone business. 

"Samsung's upper management just inherently doesn't understand software," the former employee of Samsung said. "They get hardware - in fact, they get hardware better than anyone else. But software is a completely different ballgame." 

Critics say that initiatives involving software would languish and often fail.

Despite being a  pre-installed feature on Galaxy phones, Samsung's ChatON messaging service, which has been developed to rival Apple's Facetime, has gained few fans and has closed without much notice in March. The Milk Video app lasted a year, and has closed in November.

While the company's market share continues to drop, Samsung Pay has become the saving grace in Samsung's software.

"Samsung has achieved notable progress in recent software and service offerings that have been well received by the market, including mobile payment service Samsung Pay, SmartThings IoT platform, mobile security solution Knox, and the Tizen operating system which powers our TVs and wearables," said Samsung in an official statement.